Coaches Corner | Coupeville Sports

Posts Tagged ‘Coaches Corner’

Fight fatigue! Win the day!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Coaches Corner, David King, hit the wall on January 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Mid-season fatigue hits every player in a different way. (John Fisken photo)

Mid-season fatigue hits every player in a different way. But you can get through it. (John Fisken photo)

It’s the most difficult time of the season.

Illness and fatigue can have just as much impact on a high school basketball team as the opponents they face, and coach’s have to find a way to get their players to battle through.

The Coupeville girls, despite playing their most brutal schedule in years (10 of 12 games have been on the road, with the next two also away from Whidbey), are soaring in the standings.

The Wolves are sitting at 9-3 overall, 4-0 in Olympic League play, winners of five straight and ranked #13 among 1A teams in the state’s new RPI system.

As he prepares for the week ahead (a non-conference tilt at North Mason Tuesday and a first-place showdown at Port Townsend Friday), CHS hoops guru David King swings by the Coaches Corner to offer some thoughts on making it through the rough patches.

Over the years we have seen this happen to players every year. Hitting the Fatigue Wall around the first or second week of Jan.

It’s usually incoming freshman who aren’t used to the longer high school season, but it can happen to returning players also.

With late practices, the travel, sickness, family commitments during the winter break along with finals, that wall at some point looms large.

As players they need to recognize this and figure out a way to overcome the fatigue and knock that wall down.

That means rest, eating correct, taking care of yourself.

It also takes mental toughness.

The players that have this are usually the ones that scale the wall or crash right through it.

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“Take a chance on yourself!!”

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged 1A Olympic League, Basketball, CHS Wolves, Coaches Corner, David King on January 1, 2017| Leave a Comment »

The Coupeville High School varsity girls, currently 6-3 and atop the 1A Olympic League for a third straight season. (John Fisken photo)

The calendar changes, but the focus doesn’t.

As he prepares to jump into the ’17 portion of the 2016-2017 basketball season, Coupeville High School girls’ coach David King has some thoughts on the new year.

Let’s join him over in the Coaches Corner:

I’m not one to declare New Years resolutions.

I do believe that the start of a new calendar year is a great time to reflect on where you are at and ways we can improve.

It may be minor or a major change.

It could be something that has picked an interest but something that seems far fetched or out of your reach. Whatever it is, do it with no regrets!

We are about half way through our season.

We have played well more often than not and shown how good we can be.

As a coach I hope for consistency from each player and a willingness to learn.

If we can do that we will put ourselves in a very good spot by the time the regular season ends and the postseason starts.

That’s when you want to be playing your best ball.

For us to be consistent and to continue on an upward trend, we need to play to our strengths and make some adjustments to our game to get better.

It’s easy to stay in our comfort zones and maybe defer to a teammate or rely on others to make a play.

My hope is that each player begins the new year with a hunger to make the necessary changes to their game and for the team so we can compete with confidence with every opponent we face.

I see it every season, players want to make changes and learn new skills, but we are our own worst enemies.

I say, take a chance on yourself, step out of your comfort zone.

Come into the first practice of 2017 and practice with a passion and fervor that you didn’t know you had.

Practice and play to be the best player you can be. If we all do that the games will take care of themselves.

After a positive first half of the season, I am excited to see the team take the next step and improve on our first half.

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“You must know your teammates!!”

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Coaches Corner, David King, Lauren Grove on December 24, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Senior captain Lauren Grove. (John Fisken photo)

It’s the Coaches Corner, with a twist.

Coupeville High School girls’ hoops guru David King is back for his weekly chat, but this time he’s brought along one of his veterans.

With the Wolves sliding through the Christmas break sitting in first-place in the 1A Olympic League, here’s what they had to talk about:

I wanted to do something a little different this week.

I randomly selected one of our senior captains (Lauren Grove) and sent her three questions for this week’s Coaches Corner blog.

I’ll turn it over to Lauren.

Thinking back, what are you most pleased about with your growth from your freshman year to your senior season?

The growth that has most pleased me from my freshman to senior year has been my ability to play good, clean defense.

As a freshman I would foul a lot; since then I have learned how to play effective defense without fouling, which has helped me a lot.

What have you learned over time about your teams or teammates? Some sort of accomplishment or maybe the bonding into a family type thing.

Over the past four years that I’ve played high school basketball I have learned that every team is different.

Everyone on the team has certain strengths and weaknesses, and as a player you must know who your teammates are.

If you know your teammates and spend time with them you make connections, and when those connections are brought onto the court the whole team prospers.

How important is your family in supporting you through the good and bad times of a game?

Family support is very important to me.

My family is constantly supporting me even during the toughest of games, which is really helpful.

They are a constant reminder to keep trying my best, and I’m very grateful for that.

I am hoping that the current and younger players of Coupeville will read and know how important the team and teammates are.

That each of us brings different strengths that makes for a successful team.

Also, that as athletes and humans, we have to evolve and change to reach our fullest potential. Never settle!

For parents, family and friends, the support and positive words do go a LONG way to helping each player be successful no matter the outcome of a game.

Happy Holidays and looking forward to a very successful 2017.

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Refresh and re-energize!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Coaches Corner, David King, Rogue One on December 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

CHS girls hoops coach David King. (John Fisken photo)

Your typical sports season is full of ups and downs.

The trick is to enjoy the highs (while never forgetting to build on the moment), without becoming overwhelmed by the lows.

The Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad had an extremely rough outing in its last game, a blowout loss at Bellevue Christian.

But that shouldn’t dampen the fact the Wolves currently boast a winning record (4-3) and sit atop the the 1A Olympic League (2-0) for the third consecutive year.

Having taken the weekend to clear his head, CHS head man David King swings by the Coaches Corner to drop his thoughts.

As a team we have been busy since the first day of practice (Nov. 14), with very few days off.

The players have done a great job during this time. We have been successful more often than not.

We are coming off of one of our worst games on Friday night, so the two days off couldn’t have come at a better time.

The great thing about this team — if I would have said we had practice on Saturday, they would have been there, no questions asked.

Me as a coach, I got to get away from basketball for about a day and a half.

Even took Amy to the movies and saw “Rogue One” (yes, she paid).

I was able to refresh and re-energize myself for the next stretch we are about to head into.

As a coach and also the players, sometimes we can get tunnel vision and focus so hard on what we are trying to accomplish every day that we forget to see the bigger picture.

That bigger picture is to remember we all need some downtime. Time to be able to spend with friends, family and just time to relax.

Having been around these players over the years, I know they spent their weekend relaxing and re-energizing.

We have one game this week and I’m confident we will put Friday’s showing behind us and have one of our most complete games.

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“It’s about being consistent!!”

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Coaches Corner, David King, deep thoughts on December 11, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville girls basketball coaches Amy and David King.

Learn from the past, build for the future.

The Coupeville High School girls’ basketball team is 3-2 heading into a game at Klahowya Tuesday night.

The Wolves were in the exact same situation last season — same record, same upcoming foe — and eventually finished 16-6, having advanced to state for the first time in a decade.

As he ponders Saturday’s non-conference loss to South Whidbey and the road ahead, CHS coach David King swings by the Coaches Corner to offer his early-morning thoughts.

Time to reflect after five games in our season.

At times we play at a high level. Then there are times we do not play well.

During the down times we are making the same mistakes and aren’t learning from them.

It’s about being consistent.

My first thought was we aren’t a consistent team. Then watching video and reflecting a little deeper I have a change of heart.

We are consistent in being inconsistent.

We need to start making changes and not repeat the same mistakes.

If we can figure out how to be consistent in a positive way, we have the athletes and players to play well against any opponent.

The season is still young, we have league games to play and some tough non-league teams to play.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the players do to take the next step in their games.

We can handle being consistently bad or consistently good. By that I mean, if we are bad all of the time, we know what to fix.

And can improve quickly.